HMS Blake, the last 'Tiger' in commission

Decommissioned in December 1979, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Blake is seen alongside in one of the basins at Chatham Dockyard on July 8, 1982, awaiting her final call to the scrapyard. That call came in the following month when she was sold for scrap, being towed away to Cairnryan in Scotland at the end of October 1982.

This picture gives an impression of the size of this fine vessel, which had been converted from a standard cruiser to a helicopter carrier in the late 1960s. The automatic 6" main gun turret is clearly seen. She, with her sister HMS Tiger, had been surveyed for Falklands service, and reactivation had started but could not be completed in time. Thus she narrowly missed going to war and a chance at fame.

The three ships, Lion, Blake and Tiger, had been ordered as the Minotaur class but changing times saw them completed as rather handsome modern cruisers with a fully automatic (and reputedly troublesome) main armament. Lion was never converted and went to the scrapyard in 1975; Tiger was decommissioned in 1978 and lingered on at Portsmouth for many years before being towed away (see my gallery picture 'Dying Tiger'). Blake, after firing 6" guns for the last time in the RN also became the last cruiser in commission.